Cloth of gold with felines and eagles (1225–75): Art, History and Details

Cloth of gold with felines and eagles (1225–75) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Mongol taste for luxury was equated with gold, symbol of imperial authority, power, and legitimacy. This splendid cloth of gold-exceptionally large and luxurious-may have enriched the interior of a palace or a majestic tent. The golden pattern, although tarnished on the faded red silk ground, features scalloped medallions with felines whose long tails terminate in dragons’ heads amid elegant floral vines. Double-headed eagles form interstitial motifs on the floral ground. A radiant gold-on-gold band of pseudo-Arabic script enriches the top, woven with gold strips wrapped around a silk core on a ground of flat strips of gold, immediately beneath the pattern testing area.

Object facts

• Title: Cloth of gold with felines and eagles
• Date: 1225–75
• Culture: Northeast Iran
• Type: Textile
• Technique: Silk and gold thread: lampas
• Dimensions: Overall: 170.5 x 109 cm (67 1/8 x 42 15/16 in.); Mounted: 179.1 x 118.7 x 13.3 cm (70 1/2 x 46 3/4 x 5 1/4 in.)
• Collection: T - Islamic
• Department: Textiles
• Accession number: 1990.2

A detail from the museum

Mongol cloths of gold, called nasji, incorporate Iranian, Central Asian, and Chinese features, reflecting the effects of gift exchanges and international commerce.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Museum, 1991.
• Wardwell, Anne E. "Notable Acquisitions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 78, no. 3 (June 1991): 63–147.
• "Exhibitions, Golden Lampas." HALI; the international journal of Oriental carpets and textiles 13 no. 59 (June 1991): 125.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.